Born and raised in Fort Walton Beach, it was here on the Emerald Coast that Floyd discovered his passion for shrimping. In his early 30's Floyd began to feel that his life was losing meaning. He had just been laid off from his long time ditch digging job and he wasn't quite sure where to go from there. His job was all he had and quite frankly all he knew.
Floyd spent the next few nights on a dock contemplating what the next step in his life was to going to be. When he woke up that Monday morning, Floyd had no idea his life was about to change forever. That morning Floyd noticed a help wanted sign in front of a fleet of shrimp boats. He approached the first man he saw and inquired about the position.
That man was Shemp.
"Shemp the Shrimper" Shemp took a good look at Floyd, thought for a quick second and said "hop on board Floyd, we've got a long day ahead of us." Floyd was overjoyed that he had been hired for the position. He didn't realize the difficulty of the job until they had spent fifteen hours out in the deep shrimp filled waters before returning to the docks that night. Shemp paid Floyd and sent him on his way with instructions to return again in the morning at 4:30 am. Floyd who was never known for being on time was there 15 minutes early ready to do it all over again the next day.
The feeling was a little different that day, with gale force winds, and torrential rain, the ominous feel was all around. After a few moments of pondering, Shemp decided to proceed with the trip.
After reaching the deep waters, Floyd was instructed to drop the shrimp nets. As the boat rocked back and forth in the roaring seas, Floyd, with his arm tangled in the nets went overboard. Although Shemp was able to pull Floyd out of the water, they weren't as fortunate when it came to saving his arm.
After... the incident Floyd and Shemp's friendship had begun to grow tremendously. Due to his injury, Shemp realized that Floyd would no longer be able to contribute in the shrimp boat industry. Shemp decided to sell his boat, so that he and Floyd could open a restaurant.
Floyd and Shemp decided to open a restaurant called Floyd's Shrimp house, and what a fine place it turned out to be. With all of the time that Floyd had off as a result of the unfortunate accident he had plenty of time to practice up on his shrimp recipes. He sure does cook the best shrimp on the emerald coast and Shemp sure does keep the cleanest dishes. So if you get a chance, come to Floyd's and get a first hand feel of its history and taste the shrimp the one armed Floyd is cooking up for his guests everyday.